Hilda 9 November 2009
Remembrance Sunday, the 11th hour of the second Sunday in November, I turn on the television, the crowds stand all still, not a sound. The two minutes slip by, the Queen on creaking knees lays a wreath at the Cenotaph, my knee aches in sympathy. The Last Post played on the bugle and a salute fired on the cannon. I can’t help thinking of John Winton the author of some many humerous navy book. The time for the salute be taken from the immemorial chant “If I wasn’t a Gunner I wouldn’t be here 1” If I wasn’t a Gunner I wouldn’t be here 2”.
We are out off to see an old Friend Hilda, she is 80 and getting old and her memory is going.
We leave the cats in charge of the house, telling them that they are all good cats, which is quite untrue, but well meant. We set off early we always get lost on the way to Pontefract. Its cold and the rain drops down in a dismal wave.
Hilda is fine though her carers her son Bracken and his partner Joe have that exhausted look, common to all good carers. Hilda herself is fine, better than we thought she would be. We have a lovely lunch nut roast and home grown vegetables. We chatter on and moan about the government and the banks. The house is the same, though Tessa the cat declines to join us, preferring to sleep in the hay, she is an excellent mouser. Soon, too soon it is time to go home. I hate driving in the dark, and we set off through the rain home.
The cats are all pleased to see us, this may or may not be connected to the fact that though the cat bowl was full when we left it is empty now. There are feathers everywhere some unlucky pigeon has been caught. I wonder which it was they all look equally innocent and sleepy, Fluff perhaps though she is my most beloved of the cats, I know her little ways.
I got a comment in the Times: I was in response to the dreadful poisoning of cats:
Poisoning cats is not the stuff of humour
I am really not too sure how tongue-in-cheek Rod Liddle’s “Antifreeze — cool for cats” (Comment, last week) was meant to be but it did not make me laugh (he does, however, generally raise a smile). Several years ago, in my capacity as a magistrate, I sat on the case of a local man who had killed more than 20 cats by giving them antifreeze. We were told by an expert witness — that is, a vet — of the slow and agonising death the cats would have suffered. Evidently cats cannot resist the sweetness of antifreeze and, while I do appreciate the problem of cats’ toilet habits, there are other, rather less drastic, methods of keeping them away.
Victoria Toone
Nuneaton, Warwickshire
john Blakey wrote:
Though I dislike them intensely I too think it is wrong to put down poisoned saucers of £50 notes for MPs and bankers. Though the slow and agonizing death may be justified. MPs and bankers just can’t resist the sweetness of someone else’s £50 notes. There are however less drastic methods of keeping them away.
stanley cohen wrote:
In principle I agree with Mr Blakey with the proviso that only fivers be employed.
Postcards
The Three Cliffs, Three Cliffs Bay, Gower, Wales
http://www.flickr.com/photos/emperordalek/4085615608/
Rouen Le Port, Normandie, France
http://www.flickr.com/photos/emperordalek/4085616278/
Felixstowe, Suffolk, England
http://www.flickr.com/photos/emperordalek/4085617344/
Caister-on-Sea, Bedford, England
http://www.flickr.com/photos/emperordalek/4084860973/
Budapest, Hungry
http://www.flickr.com/photos/emperordalek/4084861935/
Obituary: Tom Blumenau: businessman and human rights campaigner
Tom Blumenau campaigned for tolerance and social justice, bringing his skills in business management to support and develop influential organisations in the field of individual rights.
Born in 1927 to a Jewish family in Cologne, Blumenau was to witness in early childhood the mounting intolerance that led to the Holocaust. It bred in him a passion for human rights and respect for others.
By 1937 the family had left Germany to settle in London, where Blumenau was enrolled at St Paul’s school as his father strove to re-establish the clothing company, founded by his own father in 1887. Initially based in Islington and as a supplier of underwear to the women in Britain’s armed forces, the shadow of the Blitz forced relocation to Shropshire in 1941.
Tom joined the company, Silhouette, on leaving school and shortly afterwards was sent to the United States to study the latest developments in marketing and merchandising. In postwar Britain, as austerity became a memory and women sought out style and glamour once more, the company’s innovations in foundationwear and subsequently swimwear found ready acceptance.
The factory in Shrewsbury had been joined by others at Market Drayton, Whitchurch, Wem and the new town of Telford and at the peak had more than 3,500 workers. “It was a very happy place and the working conditions were excellent,” says an employee of the time. Blumenau’s flair for marketing and persuasive advertising gave the company steady growth and in due time he became managing director and chairman of what had become a substantial business.
In March 1959 it became a public company, quoted on the London Stock Exchange. Although the company had long since passed into new ownership, he was delighted recently to be asked as guest of honour to a theatrical production at the Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury, charting the relationship the company had with the town where its largest factory was once sited.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6908680.ece
Letters:
Guardian
Contrary to Emma Thompson’s scandalous association between Exeter and the BNP (BNP would love it here, actor tells students, 7 November), we know that the university is not racist. Not only is Exeter an especially welcoming place, but why should we feel guilty for belonging to a community perhaps more representative of the country at large than metropolitan London? Not only does the university have an exceptionally diverse student body, with students from over 120 countries, but to actively criticise it for its “whiteness” is ignorant of its location and offensive to its population. Diversity and integration are not numbers games based on arbitrary quotas.
Many students struggle to adapt to university life, but more often than not it is your perspective that has to change. It’s just not credible for Tindyebwa Agaba and his adoptive mother to associate the Exeter student body with neo-fascist views at a time when fear of a resurgent BNP is so heightened. Offence is an unwelcome fact of life – that is not what we object to. What is so objectionable is the pure irresponsibility of her comments. Even with the right intentions, is one celebrity’s soundbite worth the livelihoods and self-respect of an entire city?
Thompson should consider spending more than an afternoon photo shoot in Exeter before casting such offensive assertions. Perhaps she could take such an opportunity to apologise.
Jonathan Beddall
President, University of Exeter Politics Society
• Your story led me to reread your comprehensive report on why black and ethnic minority students get lower degree grades (Report, Education, 27 October). The Equality Challenge Unit (on whose board I used to sit) quite rightly stated “universities and colleges need to focus on whether their policies and practices are actually widening the gap or are effectively narrowing it … institutions need to reflect on whether their curricula, assessment methods, support services and even the extra-curricular activities they support are genuinely inclusive and fair.”
They went on to conclude: “We are concerned that mainstream academics in many areas aren’t having these conversations, and that complacency around race equality could lead to the attainment gap growing even wider in future years.”
I agree. Unfortunately the lethal combination of race and class equally affects the career prospects of black academics, very few of whom hold senior academic management positions in higher education. Until that issue is addressed and there are role models, especially in Russell Group institutions, black and working class students will do well to even stand still compared to other students, never mind close the gap.
Roger Kline
Timothy Garton Ash covers a broad canvas of post-1989 issues (Comment, 5 November), but the key failure was to leave Mikhail Gorbachev without economic support at the crucial moment.
In 1989, unlike in 1945, the west lacked a George Marshall with a plan to pay for transition and stability in Europe. The Soviet Union imploded dramatically, rather than by stages, the Russian people found themselves at the mercy of the oligarchs and the mafia, and soon came to blame Gorbachev for all their ills. As George Soros agrees, the rouble should have been underpinned and guaranteed, not just to prevent severe hardship for former Soviet citizens but also to ensure the early erosion of east-west barriers.
Helmut Kohl shrewdly saw the political need to exchange the East German mark at parity with its West German counterpart, even though it was probably worth only a quarter of that figure. For years the West Germans paid a substantial extra tax to pay for a much smoother integration than would otherwise have been possible. It’s “the vision thing” and, on the broader scene, it was seriously lacking 20 years ago.
Michael Meadowcroft
Leeds
• Timothy Garton Ash properly stresses the importance of the mass social movements that swept eastern Europe 20 years ago, toppling the Stalinist bureaucracies that had seemed impregnable. Yet his characterisation of China as “a hybrid that can crudely be summarised as Leninist capitalism – something we simply did not imagine in 1989″ misses the mark on two counts. First, the Maoist project, although wrapped in Marxist rhetoric, was always essentially nationalistic. Writing in 1940, Mao made it clear that in the coming revolution socialism was not on the immediate agenda, and that the “objective mission … [was] to clear the path for the development of capitalism”. The methods used borrowed not from Lenin, but from Stalin – top-down centralised planning implemented through a series of five-year plans, heavy industry prioritised over light industry and over agricultural development etc.
Second, this type of state capitalism, far from being an exotic hybrid, was actually one of the most significant developments of the 20th century – the emergence of big, state-owned economic sectors. The state came to plan the whole of internal production in Germany in the latter part of the first world war, in the US and Britain as well as Germany throughout most of the second world war, and in the USSR from Stalin to Gorbachev as well as in China under Mao. “Something we simply did not imagine in 1989″? Well, actually, Tony Cliff, the founder of the Socialist Review Group (the precursor of the Socialist Workers party) imagined it in general terms in a book that he wrote as far back as 1947.
Tim Evans
Swansea
• Today, 9 November, the world will rejoice at the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. President Reagan was right to demand of the Soviets, “tear down this wall”. But today, a wall – in places twice as high and over twice as long – snakes through the Israeli-occupied West Bank. It too divides families and it too has become a prison wall; this time for the Palestinian people. Surely, it’s time for the US to demand: “Mr Netanyahu, tear down this wall.”
Dr Stephen Leah
York
• At 1,553 miles long, the wall that divides Western Sahara is 12 times longer than the Berlin Wall and, having stood for 29 years, is now a year older than the Berlin Wall was when it was toppled. Yesterday, Saharawi’s marked the 34th anniversary of the Green March, the mass occupation by Moroccans of Western Sahara in breach of international law. The wall was built some years later to keep the 165,000 Saharawi refugees from returning to their land. Like the Berlin Wall, the Western Saharan wall has divided families for a generation and has become a potent symbol of injustice and an ongoing focus for protest.
Stefan Simanowitz
Chair, Free Western Sahara Network
Jack Schofield is wrong to suggest “the global industry is heading for chaos due to the range of digital formats being adopted” (Why radio’s grand plan has me tuning out, 2 November). Last year’s international agreement on common receiver profiles means DAB, DAB+ and DMB are compatible not competing standards. IP is an important complement to broadcast technologies, but unsuitable as a primary platform, not least because it is not mobile and cannot support nearly enough simultaneous listening. Whilst the target date of 2015 for upgrade may be ambitious, the criteria are achievable. The alternative condemns the industry to an indefinite period of unaffordable dual transmission.
Mark Friend controller, Multiplatform & Interactive, BBC Audio & Music
Another BBC mini-me
While I am sure everyone likes the idea of the BBC finally coming around and putting more serious political coverage out there , I think Democracy Live is a bad idea (Highly debatable, 2 November). The BBC has already been told it should not use its position as a state-funded behemoth to crowd out private firms. Won’t this new website really hurt the Guardian’s CiF, Open Democracy, Total Politics, PoliticsHome, They Work for You, etc.? It strikes me mostly as typical BBC mini-me, copycat actions that will only harm these other initiatives.
HeyPeople online
Mr and Mrs Dales’ diary
Well said, Mr Wainwright (Earthquake in the Dales, 2 November). However, given the reputation we dalesmen have for stubborn independence, a healthy suspicion of fashion, and an avoidance of change for change’s sake, I remain to be convinced that doing away with the “Parish Noticeboard” front page of the Craven Herald & Pioneer is going to improve our paper.
I can see the appeal in moving away from the arm-stretching broadsheet format, but do the readers of local newspapers buy them because of the headline or picture on the front page? I think mostly not. For years before the internet was dreamed of, readers of the Craven Herald have known exactly where to look to see what’s coming up – the front page. It still works – why change it?
Nobbutmiddlin online
Footlights to spotlight
“[Peter] Fincham is not a product of the TV channel conveyor belt” (Will he or won’t he?, 2 November). Oh come off it: “Fincham studied music at Churchill College, Cambridge. He joined the Cambridge Footlights production team as musical director, alongside a committee which included Griff Rhys Jones, Jimmy Mulville, Rory McGrath and Clive Anderson.”
pancakemix online
Ex-chiefs of staff, Generals Guthrie and Dannatt, have criticised Gordon Brown for providing inadequate resources and poor leadership in Afghanistan (Reports, 7 November). Dannatt is about to write his memoirs to be entitled Leading From the Front. But have Guthrie and Dannatt questioned why so few senior army officers are serving in Afghanistan? Out of 248 senior officers (59 generals and 189 brigadiers), only seven were in Afghanistan at the end of October, according to the Army Personnel Centre. If Afghanistan is the most serious military conflict of our times, why aren’t more of our senior officers committed to leading from the front, when so many less-rewarded junior ranks are facing death, injury and hardship? Perhaps Dannatt should amend the title of his memoirs.
Michael Leslie
Bingley, West Yorkshire
Article history
As a parent with two children at Oxford School, one of the two schools the United Learning Trust is proposing to replace with an academy in September 2010, it was with dismay that I read your article about the ULT’s failings with its existing academies (No more academies until standards rise, sponsor told, 6 November).
My concern was heightened by the impression conveyed by your article that the decision to allow the ULT to take over Oxford School has already been taken. Your readers need to be aware that, despite promises that parents would be consulted over the proposal, consultation has not yet taken place. Parents were first made aware of the ULT’s plans in July.
There has since been a vocal local campaign in opposition to the proposal, culminating in the resignation of nearly half the school governing body. Issues raised are not limited to the known problems of the ULT with some of its existing academies. There is also concern that the proposal would deprive parents in much of east Oxford of the option of a non-faith state secondary school and that the ULT’s proposal is for a academy for children aged 3-19 (surely an innovation too far if the trust has yet to prove its credentials for the 11-19 age group). These concerns deserve careful consideration by the secretary of state.
I sincerely hope we will not be subjected to a sham consultation on a fait accompli. It is to be hoped that Ed Balls will treat the views of parents of children at Oxford School with more respect than that shown by his colleague in the Home Office for the views of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs.
Iain McLaren
David Blunkett makes a mistake to benchmark MPs’ work and status against senior civil servants (Kelly simply doesn’t get it, 5 November). Until a rigorous job evaluation is done such comparisons lack any validity and merely represent an aspiration (if not an early self-interested bid) in forthcoming discussions about MPs’ salaries and pensions. Blunkett’s points about the demands of working with constant travel, late nights and at weekends will be recognised by many readers as part of their own chosen occupations. He needs to be careful that special pleading based on these factors doesn’t alienate large sections of the population rather than evoke their sympathy.
Gus Pennington
Faceby, North Yorkshire
• It is quite disgraceful that in refusing a debate, Harriet Harman, backed by party leaders, is trying to prevent us, the electors, from finding out what our MPs think and voting accordingly; and from being consulted, as the law requires. Ian Kennedy is required by law under the new act to consult everybody, and the first steps must be detailed debates in both houses. All of us who help the disabled and the disadvantaged will be horrified by parts of the Kelly report which, as Austin Mitchell MP says, reduces MPs to nonentities. It is an attack on the most vulnerable members of society because much of an MP’s work is speaking for them. Here in Hastings the loss of the services of Rosemary Foster, the MP’s wife, would be a major blow. This seems to be true of over a quarter of the constituencies. Thank heavens Ian Kennedy seems to realise these points.
Derek Cole
St Leonards on Sea, East Sussex
You published an article by ex-minister Kim Howells (Comment, 4 November) calling for “necessarily intrusive” surveillance of Muslim communities in Britain because of the al-Qaida threat. The day after you reported that Irish Republican “dissidents” are committed to carrying out terrorist attacks in mainland Britain (Report, 5 November). Will Howells now call for “necessarily intrusive” surveillance of Irish people in Britain?
John Wilson
London
• The Leeds refuse collection dispute has attracted little national interest, though it has left much of Leeds strewn with bags of decaying rubbish. But it is doubtless a harbinger of troubles to come right across Britain, as the next – presumably Tory – government slashes public spending and seeks to make the worst-paid bear the most pain. Cllr Brett is a Liberal Democrat (Letters, 4 November), part of a coalition with the Tories. Can we expect Lib Dems elsewhere to gang up with the Tories to take on the unions?
Kenneth Powell
Leeds
• So Simon Mann wants Mark Thatcher to face justice (Report, 4 November). He’s not the only one!
Les Hearn
London
• Aucklanders may have termed X-crossings barn dances (In praise of …, 3 November), but the New Zealand original was installed in Dunedin over 50 years ago and named after the then mayor, Jim Barnes. And Belfast has had at least one for ages.
HM Bracefield
Newtown Abbey, Co Antrim
• Henry Barnes may well have popularised barn dances in the late 1940s (Letters, 6 November) but the description was in use much earlier. In 1924 the Chicago radio station WLS began broadcasting a regular programme called National Barn Dance. This suggests that the phrase was in use long before that date.
James Hayes
Twickenham, Middlesex
• Put another way (Remembrance Day. Goodbye to all that, 7 November). Why, as a nation, are we so brilliant at remembering but so hopeless at learning?
David J Handley
Independent:
The Royal College of Physicians is right to propose a three-way mandated choice for organ donation. The growing shortfall of organs for transplant imposes on us a moral obligation to consider new ways to increase the number of donors.
Not only is the current opt-in system failing to meet demand, it cannot guarantee that an individual’s wishes will be carried out. The decision is often left to family members who may not know what their relative would have wanted; and, at the other extreme, 10 per cent of registered donors still have their wishes vetoed by their family when they die.
The British Medical Association favours presumed consent, but this assumes that the lack of a registered objection signifies a willingness to donate, when it could easily be the result of ignorance of the opt-out system, simple inertia, or an unwillingness to contemplate death and organ donation.
Mandated choice requires you to state a preference in advance, thereby maximising the chances of your wishes being fulfilled. Your family cannot override your decision unless you opt for them to have the final say, in which case they would know that you weren’t actively opposed to organ donation; if you had been, you would have ticked “No”.
This should both increase donation rates and reduce the risk of families worrying that they are donating a relative’s organs when that is not what he or she would have wanted.
If the current advertising campaign does not recruit enough donors to fill the shortfall then we should examine other systems; but we cannot presume to know what people want done with their organs unless we ask them.
Dr Hugo Wellesley
Great Ormond street Hospital London WC1
As one of 7,000 people in the UK awaiting a kidney transplant I was delighted by your prominent call to arms over the issue of organ donation (4 November).
My hopes were raised with the discussion, a year ago, about whether our country should switch to presumed consent. At the time I wrote to many public figures and received encouraging responses from the Prime Minister and my Labour MP. A spokesman for David Cameron accepted that presumed consent had proved to be a significant success in Spain but inexplicably said that Cameron could not support the change. The Organ Donation Taskforce then came down against presumed consent.
The waiting list grows ever longer. Something has to change. I am grateful that you have taken a lead in starting a debate.
Carol Gould
Bristol
Losing faith in the Afghan campaign
I joined the remembrance ceremony at our local war memorial, but the Government should not take high attendances at memorial events as signifying support for the current war in Afghanistan.
I attended primarily out of respect for those who gave their lives to protect this country from invasion in the war against fascism. But I also attended out of respect for those who are currently being sacrificed on the altar of the vanity of our politicians who cannot admit that they have got it wrong in Afghanistan.
In the past fortnight the futility of the campaign in Afghanistan has been brought into sharper focus, by a succession of traumatic events:
The failure of the “Panther’s Claw” troop surge to secure a free and fair first round in the presidential election has been compounded by the cancellation of the second round.
The murder of five soldiers by one of the policemen they were training demonstrates that it is almost impossible to prevent the Taliban infiltrating the Afghan security forces.
The murder, in the United States, of 12 military personnel and a civilian by a Muslim major, opposed to the war in Afghanistan.
Increasingly audacious terrorist attacks against military bases in the heart of Pakistan, by al-Qa’ida and the Taliban, some of whom may have been driven out of Afghanistan into Pakistan by the war.
There are few Afghans in Britain, but hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis. Increasing militancy in Pakistan is likely to have an impact on Pakistani communities in the UK. Far from reducing the risk of terrorism in this country, the consequence of the “war against terror” in Iraq, Afghanistan and now Pakistan is likely to be the exact opposite.
Julius Marstrand
Cheltenham
General Lord Guthrie is right to point out the startling lacuna in Gordon Brown’s speech on the British presence in Afghanistan. The Prime Minister claims it is vital to the United Kingdom for British forces to be fighting there, yet he shows no sign of adopting the necessary war measures to prepare the nation for the task he envisages.
Clearly Nato is an unreliable alliance and – Canada, Denmark and the United States apart – its members neither share Mr Brown’s apocalyptic vision of the threat, nor are they prepared to commit fighting troops to combat it. Why is he right and they wrong?
Only by a convincing, forensic analysis of the facts can the case be made to a sceptical British public – or possibly not. Former FCO minister Kim Howells recently argued compellingly for a fundamental strategic reassessment of the case for the UK’s – and Nato’s – campaign in Afghanistan and urged for the focus to be on on UK border and internal defensive measures.
Mr Brown’s argument that simply cannot be sustained is: we carry on because we’re there; we’ve been there a long time, we have suffered casualties and therefore we can’t quit now. That is not strategy.
William Pender
Lieutenant Colonel (Rtd)
Salisbury
The Tory history of Europe
The apparently “new” position on Europe outlined by David Cameron is yet more evidence of Tory inconsistency. Perhaps they need a history lesson.
This is the party that took Britain in the European Economic Community; the party that campaigned for a yes vote in the 1975 referendum; they signed up to the Single European Act that created the political dimensions of the EU; and, biggest of all, they gave us Maastricht in 1992 – without ven considering a referendum.
It’s the Conservatives (not Labour or anyone else) who since the very beginning of Britain’s involvement in the European project, made Britain part of it, shifting more and more sovereignty to the European level. For David Cameron to ask for a referendum on Lisbon while trying to keep a straight face would be laughable.
Lisbon is a tidying-up exercise, almost insignificant in comparison to Maastricht, which created the European symbols including the flag and anthem, and strengthened qualified majority voting, making it more difficult to veto decisions. It’s the Conservatives that gave Britain the political Europe that they constantly condemn. And it’s incredible how they somehow brush it off as if it were someone else’s creation.
Toni Giugliano
Edinburgh
The values millions died to defend
We have been involved in our annual weekend of national remembrance for millions of our young who gave their lives in war to protect the freedom and British way of life we live and breathe by.
They died for all the benefits of the precious lifestyle we enjoy. It must not be undermined by the culture of greed, which many in high places live by and try to excuse. They are in contempt of these precious values.
George Appleby
York
Mary Wakefield chose the day before Remembrance Sunday to display publicly her ignorance of those who fought and died in the Second World War (“Why all the fuss to install Park on the plinth”, 7 November).
Why boast of never having heard of Keith Park, when reference to any war history would have alleviated her complacent lack of readily available knowledge. She aims her jibes at a man whose name many of those who marched on Sunday will remember with huge respect.
Mary Harris
London W11
Some cyclists are hard to avoid
I am pleased that David Prosser (“Motorists are just too lazy, selfish and reckless”, 6 November) has recovered from his accident after a motorist knocked him off his bike, but it is grossly unfair to blame motorists for most accidents.
Around where I live there seems to be an outbreak of cyclists with a death wish. In the last week I have had two near-misses with cyclists cycling on busy roads after dark with no lights on their bikes, wearing dark clothing without a single patch of reflective material, and neither was wearing a helmet. They were not children or teenagers, but middle-aged adults who should have known better.
I am sure that there are plenty of careless motorists, but there are also many cyclists who are just as stupid and reckless.
Heather Smith
Bishop Auckland, Co Durham
However depressing the statistics of cyclists injured or killed in accidents, the conclusion is not to get off your bike but to get on it.
The number of cyclists in this country is still so small that drivers do not look out for us. Only by increasing our numbers can we raise the awareness of the motorists. On the Continent you do not do a left-hand turn (or rather for them it is a right-hand one) without looking over your shoulder to check for cyclists. Does anyone do it here? All driving instruction courses should include a session or two on a bike. Drivers must be taught to keep a safe distance when overtaking or approaching a cyclist – and cyclists need to be educated that the Highway Code applies to them too.
Soren Upton Sjolin
Bury ST Edmunds, Suffolk
This ‘joke’ was just not funny
Ian Burrell asks, “When is a joke not a joke?” (7 November). The answer should be obvious. A joke is often an exaggerated description of human behaviour told in a manner that people find funny because they see themselves. Excellent comedians (Jack Dee and Paul Merton, for example), can tell a story this way, whereas puerile individuals such as Frankie Boyle and David Walliams believe humour is using bad language and being offensive.
How they cannot see that Frankie Boyle’s remarks about Rebecca Adlington were grossly offensive, beggars belief. If the choice is watching Rebecca swimming for gold or watching so-called comedians using bad language, then I am afraid we have a no-brainer.
Malcolm Howard
Banstead, Surrey
Sci-fi mystery
Unlike the writers of some of the letters you have published following the naming of Wayne Rooney’s son, I don’t know what Kai means. You’ll probably have to ask Lex Gigeroff, who created the show, but Kai (the Dead Man) was a former assassin for His Divine Shadow, and the Last of the Brunnen G in the sci-fi series Lexx.
Dave MacKenzie
CHESTER
Non-speaking part
Recent correspondence about the casting of The Archers reminds me that in the days when Jim could fix it, I asked him to get me the part of Higgs, Jack Woolley’s chauffeur, a man who had never uttered a word on air. I was hoping to provide a simple grunt in response to one of Jack’s orders, but, alas, it was not to be, and I missed my chance to be part of the Archers’ archive.
Richard Welch
Nantglyn, North Wales
Long way away
One of the frustrations that we provincial folk have with the London-based media is your lack of geographical knowledge outside the Home Counties. Your otherwise excellent piece on Mike Tyson’s bizarre UK tour (7 November) was ruined by the assertion that Merthyr Tydfil and Bloxwich were “a short trip” from each other. One is in South Wales. The other is in the West Midlands. I’m pretty certain that you would not have described, say, Eastbourne and Watford in similar terms.
Mark Sawbridge
Wolverhampton
Cheerful tricks
The trick-or-treaters that came to my door at 9.30pm were “guised” in hoodies and were upwards of 11 years old (letter, 6 November). But, to my delight, when I returned with the sweets they were doing a rather good dance routine without any prompt from me. They were charming and well-mannered too. They may not have made me laugh – but they chased the Devil away alright.
Steven Rhodes
London SE11
Royal command
Further to Andrew Johnson’s letter (6 November) and Brian Viner’s digression concerning strange objects found in the rectum, I see a disturbing trend emerging featuring souvenirs from British seaside towns. If this is the best that one can hope to take home from a trip to a coastal resort then I am minded to follow the late King George V’s advice: “Bugger Bognor!”
John Schluter
Guildford, Surrey
Times:
Sir, There is cross-party consensus about the need to get more women into the House of Commons, and to encourage women with young families to stand for Parliament. As serving MPs, we are concerned that aspects of Sir Christopher Kelly’s proposals will discourage women who might otherwise seek their party’s nomination, as well as exposing existing MPs to unnecessary risk.
The Kelly report does not address the fact that MPs are, in effect, shift workers. On Mondays and Tuesdays, we are expected to remain at the House of Commons for 10pm votes. The voting process is slow, and means that we are often unable to leave Westminster until 10.45pm. Under Kelly’s proposed regime, MPs whose constituencies are within an hour’s train journey of London will receive no financial assistance to rent accommodation and will have to return home each evening.
Trains are slower and less frequent at night, and some MPs will not be able to reach their home stations until after midnight. In some cases, they will have to alight at unstaffed stations and walk to their cars through car parks or wait for taxis. The risk of mugging or sexual assault is obvious, and is likely to deter women who currently have jobs where the safety of employees is treated with the seriousness it deserves. We cannot believe that Sir Christopher Kelly seriously intends that his proposals should put female MPs at unnecessary risk, but in the light of his report we call on the leaders of our parties to reaffirm their commitment to making Parliament a friendlier place for women. We also call on the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority to ensure that the safety of current and future MPs is a guiding principle in its deliberations.
Claire Curtis-Thomas, MP, Kali Mountford, MP, Jacqui Lait, MP, Eleanor Laing, MP, Phyllis Starkey, MP
House of Commons, SW1
Sir, Even given the better quality standard of MP to which Sir John Baker, (letter, Nov 6) refers, I am not sure they deserve to be measured against doctors and headteachers for their salaries. Both of these put in years of study and financial sacrifice to obtain academic and professional qualifications needed for their chosen careers. A newly elected MP can achieve with no qualifications and little or no experience.
One could argue the only qualities an MP requires is a thick skin, party loyalty and the gift of the gab.
Reg Kemp March, Cambs
Sir, Today the Government looks set to ask the Commons to repeal an important protection for free speech. It was inserted by the Lords into the new homophobic hatred offence in May 2008 and, after twice trying and failing to remove this free speech protection, the Government reluctantly accepted the position and allowed it to go on the statute book. But then, in a move for which there seems to be no precedent, it introduced a clause in another Bill in the very next session to repeal what they had enacted. The repealing clause came before the Lords in July and the House rejected the measure by a large majority.
The free speech clause is supported across the political spectrum. Liberty, the Church of England, Matthew Parris and Rowan Atkinson have also joined the ranks of those who back it. It says: “For the avoidance of doubt, the discussion or criticism of sexual conduct or practices or the urging of persons to refrain from or modify such conduct or practices shall not be taken of itself to be threatening or intended to stir up hatred.”
Some might say it is so moderate that it merely states the obvious and is therefore unnecessary. But those who say that are closing their eyes to what is happening. Police officers, pressurised by diversity training and furnished with guidance from the Home Office and the Crown Prosecution Service, seem to feel duty bound to come down like a ton of bricks on people who express disagreement with the behaviour of some gay rights activists, and members of the public are left feeling harassed and frightened. The recent case of the Christian grandmother interrogated in her living room about a letter she wrote to her local council is just the latest example. The politically motivated trampling of free speech is something that should concern us all. It is the duty of Parliament to try to prevent this from continuing to happen.
Lord Waddington
David Taylor, MP
Westminster, SW1
Sir, Professor Anthony Glees (letter, Oct 30) makes three basic points about Professor Christopher Andrew’s history of MI5: that evidence has been destroyed to distort the record if only by silence; that Andrew does not address important operations that are not in the existing files, and that he soft-pedals the post-1945 Soviet Intelligence and subversion offensive.
Of course, the body of evidence has been sculpted. MI5 must have had millions of files, not just the existing 400,000. There are, we should be aware, official files not about Intelligence that are literally hundreds of years old (eg, about Ireland, and Napoleon) still not public. Few evidential records are complete. Andrew makes clear that his work is based on official evidence. But this has not restrained his judgments. He has obviously been concerned to bring to light as much as possible while memories and people are still alive, offering up his account to the broadest possible amendment.
Evidence is also maintained to sculpt the record, too: even complete files can mislead. Sculpting information is a prerogative of whoever owns it, in this case the darkest workings of our government. It is to the credit of MI5 that the best evidential history that could be produced clearly has been by Andrew. And it obviously took courage for Andrew to undertake his task.
An authorised history is not an unauthorised history. Andrew makes this plain and clear. To criticise him for writing an authorised account is beside the point. His book, The Defence of the Realm: The Authorised History of MI5, is infused with the German, Soviet, Irish and terrorist threats that have been of principal concern. He faced a ruthless and historically self-authorised organisation and it is extraordinarily to his credit — and theirs — that he has brought so much out.
In any democracy people demand to know what is done in their name. Andrew has done us great service by telling us all he can from the MI5 record that is available. It is clear that he has not written to please.
John Ranelagh
Grantchester, Cambs
Sir, So the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that to display crucifixes in Italian schools “violates religious freedom” (report, Nov 4). So to offer only, say, soccer and rugby in such schools must violate sports freedom, and for British shops to assault us with ceaseless pop music offends our music freedom. But unless there is something to be free from, the notion is meaningless. Christianity has been Italy’s religion for two millennia; if Italian children are never taught even that, their religious “freedom” will be freedom to move in a metaphysical void — which indeed seems where we are all heading, under such increasingly censorious rulings.
John Powell Ward
Horton Kirby, Ken
Sir, I do not think it is reasonable for Radovan Karadzic to waste more public funds on this legal case (“Karadzic wins extra time for war crimes trial fight”, report, Nov 6, and letter, Nov 7) when he has had nearly a year to prepare. He should be given an extension only if he is prepared to fund the massive cost of the delay. If not, then the trial goes ahead in his absence after two requests for his attendance.
Annie Campbell
Sir, Mandatory sex lessons for every 15-year-old (report , Nov 6) is an encroachment on the personal liberties of parents. It is risible to suggest that under-age single mothers who have experienced sex need any lessons whatsoever in such matters. Schools would do better to concentrate on imparting the “three Rs”, on which knowledge of other subjects can be built. Allied to a return of proper school discipline, this would give disaffected youth a sense of self-worth and achievement which at present they seem able to find only in the production of illegitimate offspring that they can neither support nor nurture. It’s time that the woolly liberal attitudes from which the present dysfunctional education structure has arisen, and which blurs the distinction between right and wrong, was consigned to the scrapheap.
Laurence Factor
Stanmore, Middlesex
Sir, Let us hope that the latest trend in sex tuition is a temporary blip until the children are parents and can pass on the relevant information. In my younger days I was one of a team giving factual sex education to parents and children together at their own request. This proved very successful and helped to close the generation gap. Only the parents and close adults really know when is the best time to impart this information. To suggest that 15 is a suitable age when children are in the midst of hormone turbulence is quite wrong. Giving preparatory human development information to children aged 8 or 9 would be far more sensible. As one of the boys in such classes was overheard saying to another: “I didn’t know you were so wonderful inside. I thought you were just someone to bash up.”
Frances Hancock
Lymm, Cheshire
Telegraph:
SIR – How right Charles Moore is (Comment, November 7). As a former soldier now working in Kabul as a security consultant, with Afghans as well as expats, I know that following a setback, it is generally felt by those in theatre that one must simply press on.
This is an arena for big boys, not the boy scouts. When a frightful incident occurs, and the cry goes up in the homeland for withdrawal, all it shows to the loathsome Taliban – and every other Afghan national – is the gutlessness of Western democracies with their craving for a quick-fix solution.
Thus we leave ourselves open to abuse, contempt and defeat. I am appalled by the lack of resolution by Gordon Brown and Barack Obama, two of the West’s most powerful leaders. They should both get a grip – and fast.
James Mayo
Kabul, Afghanistan
SIR – When senior officers asked for a further 2,000 troops in Afghanistan, Gordon Brown promised 500. When more helicopters were needed, Mr Brown denied that troops were dying through their absence. When replacements for the Snatch Land Rovers were required, and troops wrote home complaining of a lack of even the most basic necessities, Mr Brown insisted that our forces were getting everything they needed.
Now Mr Brown, who expected the taxpayer to bankroll his Sky Sports subscription, and who has been in office during the most far-reaching financial scandal in British political history, requires the Afghan government to clean up its act, and demands that the British people support the Afghan war (report, November 7).
Could he not have set a better example?
Colin Macdonald
Nottingham
SIR – For the past thousand years, no foreign army has entered Afghanistan and left victorious.
Yesterday, when we remembered, among others, the recent dead, who died with their boots on, mostly paid for by themselves, we should never forget them, nor should we ever forgive or forget the politicians who sent them there.
Eric Vaughan
Willoughby, Lincolnshire
SIR – As the headmaster of a school with past pupils and present parents serving in Afghanistan, I should like to pay tribute to our Armed Forces. They do a wonderful job and make me proud to be British.
Last week I had the honour of meeting three old boys who are serving officers. All have seen action in Iraq
and Afghanistan. They spoke in measured tones with self-deprecation and humour.
As long as our country can produce such men and women, we have a chance.
Clive Dytor
The Oratory School
Woodcote, Berkshire
Cameron’s EU allies
SIR – Many people in the Jewish community have noted with concern the recent attacks on David Cameron’s allies in eastern Europe. In particular, Michal Kaminski, the leader of the European Conservative and Reformists group in the European Parliament, and the LNNK party of Latvia have been accused of anti-Semitism and neo-Nazism by opponents of the Conservative Party.
It has become increasingly obvious that these accusations are unfair, baseless and politically motivated. The Chief Rabbi of Poland has now spoken up on behalf of Michal Kaminski and has made it clear that far from being an anti-Semite, Mr Kaminski is an outspoken opponent of anti-Semitism and a friend of Israel.
The Latvian Foreign Minister has publicly criticised attacks on the LNNK and stated that “none of the ruling parties in Latvia has ever glorified Nazism”.
Anger has been expressed at the highest levels in both Poland and Latvia at what are seen as smears on respectable, mainstream politicians.
Anti-Semitism is far too grave a charge to be used as a political football. We call upon those responsible for making unsubstantiated allegations to withdraw them.
Lord Young of Graffham
Flo Kaufmann
Chairman, European Jewish Congress
Howard Leigh
Chairman, Westminster Synagogue
Benjamin Perl
Chairman, Huntingdon Foundation
Joshua Rowe
David Lewis
Peter Leach
David Chenkin
Martin Green
Marilyn Ofer
Naomi Hass Perlman
Yvonne Sherrington
Henry Davis
Alan Mendoza
Richard Bernstone
Ashley Krais
Jon Cohen
Alan Jacobs
Louise Jacobs
Nicole Debson
Spencer Debson
Ivan Sopher
Louis Cohen
Caronne Graham
Stephen Massey
Richard Harrington
Roving reporters
SIR – I am greatly reassured that others also find the unnecessary and often ill-timed practice of hand-waving by newsreaders objectionable (Letters, November 5).
Can the BBC and others please discourage their presenters from this distracting practice, and also ask them to sit down and stop roving about the studio when giving the news?
David Lindsay
Middleton on Sea, West Sussex
SIR – At last someone has commented on television presenters’ hands. Do they attend a course devoted to hand-flapping? They all seem to perform it with remarkable precision – very reminiscent of performing seals in the circuses of days gone by.
G. Royston
Southampton
Useful leaf-blowers
SIR – Leaf-blowers may be noisy (Letters, November 6), but they do have their uses. I was in the village of Minions, on the edge of the windswept Bodmin Moor, when I heard a leaf-blowing machine at work. There wasn’t a tree in sight. Curious, I rounded a corner to see a resident using the machine to blow sheep dung off his drive.
I bet the manufacturer never envisaged such a use.
Matthew Dale
Restronguet, Cornwall
In stupidity we trust
SIR – Further to your report (November 7) about National Trust taking a light-hearted swipe at health and safety culture, there is a map on the approaches to Lindisfarne Castle – owned by National Trust – which states, with no apparent irony, in the bottom left-hand corner: “Sea – water hazard”.
Richard Yeo
Coldingham, Berwickshire
Voting for Ukip
SIR – Dr Barry Moyse (Letters, November 7) asks how voting for Ukip can help its cause of EU withdrawal if that means blocking a “Eurosceptic” Conservative.
To answer this hoary old Tory gripe, Ukip’s leader has promised for years now not to oppose any sitting MP who signs up to the Better Off Out Campaign. Any MP prepared to incur his leader’s wrath can thereby be spared and earn our support.
Ukip will field up to 500 candidates next year. Many will lose their deposits and few may have any hope of winning in our first-past-the-post system. However, they will give the public their only chance of voting for withdrawal now that David Cameron has abandoned his referendum pledge.
Lisbon has completed our integration into the post-democratic EU single state. Does it matter much which of the main three parties sits in Westminster?
Sir George Earle Bt
Crediton, Devon
SIR – What a pity MPs did not defend this country’s sovereignty with the same rigour that they are defending their expenses.
Bill Gladstone
Solihull, West Midlands
SIR – Charles de Gaulle, one of the founding fathers of the European Community, once asked how it was possible to govern a country with 246 varieties of cheese. He was referring to France alone. How many kinds of cheese are there in the rest of the EU?
Peter Garstin
Dover, Kent
All aboard the love boat
SIR – Never mind missing the bus or the train by seconds being the most annoying thing in the world (Leading article, November 5), can you imagine the frustration of seeing the last ferry from Portsmouth to Gosport slipping its ropes as you sprint down to the water’s edge?
The alternative is an expensive taxi or an eventful journey on the late-night “love boat” – so named by the long-suffering fishermen who provide the service.
Gaby McCall
Gosport, Hampshire
In hot water
SIR – Can anyone explain why the water in most public lavatories is so hot? In the absence of mixer taps, it is often possible to use only the cold water.
Marie Smith
Billington, Lancashire
Bumper stickers for the MPs who still don’t “get it”
SIR – In the light of Professor Sir Ian Kennedy’s close relationship with the Labour hierarchy (report, November 7), and his announcement that he intends to ignore large parts of the findings of Sir Christopher Kelly’s inquiry, is it not time to start a campaign called “They still don’t get it”?
I am writing a letter to my MP headed, “You still don’t get it” and would suggest others do likewise. Perhaps The Daily Telegraph could start issuing bumper stickers.
Richard Sparrow
Maidstone, Kent
SIR – Alastair Campbell chose to phone a friend and to go 50/50. Perhaps it is now time for his party to ask the audience.
Anthony Lord
Thornton-Cleveleys, Lancashire
SIR – I am not sure which is the more worrying: the fact that Alastair Campbell is a close friend of Professor Sir Ian Kennedy, or that neither of them knew that Skylab was American.
To think that the French might have had the capability in 1973 to launch a space station is bad enough, but then to imagine that had they done so, they would have called it “Skylab” shows an alarming level of ignorance.
Edward Johnson
Gaydon, Warwickshire
SIR – Further to the letter from Bryan Enfield (November 6) may I add that the Latin word ipsa, meaning “herself”, was also used by household slaves in Roman times to refer to their mistress – along the lines of “her indoors” or “her upstairs” in modern parlance.
Clearly, this makes Ipsa an entirely appropriate name for the body that will have regulatory powers over MPs.
Roy Batters
Abingdon, Oxfordshire
Irish Times:
Cutting the number of TDs
Madam, – Well done to John McGrath in expressing his concern that politicians share the pain of the economic mess (November 4th), which has been created primarily by the politicians failing to properly regulate the banks.
Having the current number of TDs (166) has not helped to protect the nation. We now should reduce the number of TDs to 83. Straw poll research indicates such a proposal would receive massive support from the public.
The advantages of this change include: 1. Providing true leadership in times when cuts are required everywhere. 2. Reduction of costs. 3. Giving politicians the opportunity to restore some of their damaged credibility with the public. 4. Reducing the number of representatives per head of population closer to international norms. 5. Offering the potential to reform the political system to ensure that TDs only do work of national value (since there would be fewer of them).
Finally, this would be relatively easy to implement, requiring one simple constitutional amendment and a fairly straightforward re-arrangement of constituencies.
The catch: a constitutional amendment can only be put to the people following a Bill passed by the Dáil. Will the turkeys have the moral courage to vote for Christmas? – Yours, etc,
DAVID MacDONALD,
Mount Merrion Avenue,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Keeping within the speed limit
Madam, – John Mullen (November 6th) criticised Sarah Carey (Opinion, November 4th) for her “self-righteous adherence to the speed limit” and failing to let “faster” motorists go by.
Let’s call a spade a spade. For “faster motorists” we should read motorists who gladly flout speed limits without a thought for the safety of others, let alone themselves.
Speeding drivers might “appreciate” slower, compliant drivers letting them go by, but your letter-writer’s sympathies are dreadfully misdirected. The question: do we want a culture of road-safety where aggressive driving is condemned, or do we not?
Adhering to speed limits is an obvious legal duty. But all vehicle users have a duty of care also to treat the limit as a guideline to the maximum speed. Adjusting driving to suit road conditions can often mean having to drive below the limit.
That may be a conceptual step too far for some drivers, but in that case they really should not be licensed to drive. It is astonishing that, after all of the advertising campaigns warning us to slow down, drivers who drive at appropriate speeds can be characterised as somehow being a greater danger.
Apart from being a driver, I am a frequent walker on country roads. I find drivers who slow down and show respect for safety to be in the minority. You often get a real sense of truculence from drivers who are obliged to suffer the dreadful inconvenience of actually coming to a halt when there is an oncoming car, on a narrow stretch of the road. I often wonder whether one must be a walker in order to understand how daunting it can be to have a ton or more of metal hurtling towards you on a country road, prepared to pass with inches to spare, without ever reducing speed.
Although their resources are already stretched too far to cope, there is no question but that enforcement of speed limits is the sole responsibility of the Garda Síochána.
However, to contend law-abiding motorists should pull in to appease aggressive and impatient fellow drivers demonstrates a wilful blindness to where the real problem lies. – Yours, etc,
PETER A O’SULLIVAN ,
Tipper Road,
Naas,
Co Kildare.
Swine flu vaccinations
Madam, – Two weeks ago, having rung my GP to inquire about getting the swine flu vaccine for my 18-month-old son with cystic fibrosis (CF), I was faced with the news we would have to attend one of the HSE clinics.
This left me with shivers down my spine, as first, we would have to enter a hospital/clinic to receive the vaccine and second, we would be faced with unknown factors such as crowds, waiting rooms, etc.
On Monday when I went online to see where we had to go I was very impressed with the fact I could book the clinic online, but worried what lay ahead as we had to attend Naas General Hospital, which I knew nothing about.
On Thursday morning we arrived at our allowed time, and while my mother waited with my son in the car park, I took a deep breath and entered the hospital expecting to be faced with a queue.
Instead I was greeted by a team of highly organised nurses who on hearing my son had CF, told me I would be seen immediately and they had only that morning done a test run in expectation of dealing with cases like ours.
When I say this brought a tear to my eye I am not joking. I have for months now been avoiding crowds, shops and pharmacies etc for fear my son would catch swine flu and here I was almost at the finish line and instead of having yet another battle on my hands – as I had expected – I had people there to hold our hands and tell us everything would be okay.
My son was quickly and efficiently brought down secluded corridors to an isolation area and within five minutes the vaccine had been administered. We waited for 15 minutes to see that he was all right, and every three minutes a friendly faced popped in to see if we were okay. To say we were okay was an understatement: the relief I cannot explain.
I want to thank the HSE and the community nurses that were there for providing the most wonderful service. As a mother who constantly watches the likes of Orla Tinsley campaign for these basic human rights for our children, it was so lovely for once to see things run as they should be, and for that I am truly grateful. – Yours, etc,
RUTH CAHILL,
Newtown Court,
Maynooth,
Kildare.
Community projects under threat?
Madam, – I wish to respond to Thomas Erbsloh’s letter (November 5th) regarding the Government’s two main social inclusion and community development programmes – the Local Development Social Inclusion Programme (LDSIP) and the Community Development Programme (CDP).
My view is that a focused programme with a single integrated delivery structure is needed in order to maximise the impact of the local development programme and the Community Development Programme, which serve disadvantaged communities.
My overall aim is to ensure that, from 2010, having regard to the budgetary position, disadvantaged communities will benefit from a more focused programme with clear objectives, simplified and streamlined delivery structures and better-integrated actions, leading to significant administrative savings.
The department is undertaking a review of the Community Development Programme and will shortly have a full report on the findings and recommendations arising from it. The statement made in the letter to The Irish Times claiming that the majority of CDPs will close as a result of the review process is completely inaccurate.
On the contrary, I would reasonably expect the majority of projects to be deemed viable and that they would move into the new integrated programme. However, some Community Development Programmes are not dependent solely on funding provided by the department and may decide to continue in separate existence, outside of the new integrated programme. The department cannot instruct these companies, or indeed any independent legal entity, to close.
The intention is to preserve elements of best practice from the existing CDP/LDSIP programmes in the redesigned model, to minimise structures and to enhance benefits for individuals and communities through significant administrative and overhead savings.
These developments are taking place at a time of extreme budgetary difficulties, the full extent of which will not be known until budget day. – Yours, etc,
JOHN CURRAN TD,
Minister of State,
Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs,
Mespil Road,
Dublin 4.
Shopping in Dublin city
Madam, – Regarding Kate Holmquist’s reference to “extortionate” prices for car parking in the city centre (Features, November 3rd), I beg to differ.
The current rate for car parking in the Arnotts car park, off O’Connell Street, is €2 for three hours upon presentation of a receipt from Arnotts or Arnotts Project. The rate is €2.80 for every hour thereafter and there is no “end-date” for this tariff. I feel this is a competitive and fair price, not “extortionate”. We are also working closely with the Dublin City Business Association to welcome and encourage customers to shop in the heart of Dublin. – Yours, etc,
DAVID RIDDIFORD CEO,
Arnotts,
Henry Street,
Dublin 1.
Quotas for female politicians
Madam, – I refer to the article regarding Senator Ivana Bacik’s report on candidate quota legislation to bring more women into Irish politics (Home News, November 5th).
May I suggest she do a report on candidate quality legislation instead? – Yours, etc,
PADDY SHORTALL,
The Bottleworks,
Irishtown,
Dublin 4.
Cutting expenses
Madam, – Why don’t our Government Ministers – as a matter of course – stay in Irish Embassies and use embassy transport, when visiting capital cities around the world? Surely this would eliminate the need for the expense of staying in five-star hotels and hiring limos? – Yours, etc,
F SHIELDS,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Redress for Magdalene laundry inmates
Madam, – The Department of Justice’s meeting with survivors of the Magdalene laundries represents a positive first step in the right direction (Home News, November, 5th).
Hopefully this development will lead to further discussions involving church, State and survivor groups, and ultimately to an apology and forms of redress and compensation for all survivors and family members.
The Department of Justice stands at the centre of the State’s complicity in “referring individuals to the Magdalene laundries”. For much of the last century the judicial system used “Religious Homes”, including Magdalene laundries, as places of remand, probation and imprisonment for women and young girls. The courts referred young women to these “Homes” because the State refused to make available a borstal institution for young female offenders, despite recommendations to do so (eg, in the so-called Carrigan Report, 1931).
The Department of Justice was aware that the use of these institutions in this manner had no basis in law. The Cussen Report (1936), the State’s first study of the industrial and reformatory schools system, reveals that judges were “reluctant” to send young women and first offenders to the women’s prisons. They overcame this difficulty by sending them to “a home conducted by a religious order” provided the “girl” consented to go there and the home agreed to accept her. The report states that there was no statutory basis for this arrangement.
In 1942, the Department of Justice drafted legislation, The Criminal Justice (Female Offenders) Bill, to provide legal sanction for this practice, and in the process protect the State from legal challenge.
A department memorandum outlines the situation whereby “[p]rison is the only legal place of detention” available to judges in sentencing women. It then details the legal problem at hand: It is true that at present some justices have adopted the practice, in cases where they think fit (usually infanticide cases), to sentence a female offender to a term of imprisonment not to be enforced if she undertakes to stay in a convent for a fixed period. This is, however, only a makeshift practice and there are no positive means of compelling the offender to remain in the convent, if at any time she chooses to leave.
Women referred to the Magdalene laundries by the Irish courts were always entitled to walk free, and the State knew this to be the case.
It never informed the women of their legal entitlements.
Rather, the legislation envisaged by the department would have enabled the Minister to certify “certain residential institutions or houses” as legal places of detention for female prisoners within the meaning of the Prison Acts. And, the industrial and reformatory school system was the preferred model for bringing these religious homes under direct State control. The Minister would appoint “persons to act as Managers”, he would approve “the rules and regulations”, he would retain “the right to have them inspected periodically by inspectors of his department”, and he would be obliged to defray the “cost of upkeep of persons committed to the institutions by way of capitation grants”. The draft “Heads of Bill” legislated for each of these provisions.
How many women are we talking about? Between 1926 and 1964, the courts sent at least 54 women to Catholic Magdalene asylums, at least four Protestant women were sent to the Bethany Home, 26 women went to Our Lady’s Home, Henrietta Street (an institution with a commercial laundry), one woman was sent to the Regina Coeli Hostel, and one woman to the Sean Ros Abbey. In March 1944 the Department of Justice could document an additional twenty-nine women on probation at a variety of religious “Homes”, including six Magdalene laundries.
The Criminal Justice (Female Offenders) Bill, 1942 never did become law. The Religious Congregations running Magdalene Laundries – the Sisters of Mercy, the Sisters of Charity, the Good Shepherd Sisters, and the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of Refuge – would always resist direct State control. The nuns would never allow “inspectors”: the laundries were never inspected, never regulated. And yet, the practice continued whereby the courts referred women beyond the control of the judicial system into unregulated and non-licensed institutions. And the Department of Justice stood by and refused “to intervene, to come to the aid” of these citizens of the State.
What the Department of Justice must now answer for is its awareness of this “makeshift” practice and its refusal to act. It never prohibited judges from sending women to the laundries. Then as now, the State sought to protect its own interests. It sought to provide legal sanction by way of legislation just as now it cowers behind liability law.
The State must own this historic failure. It must own its complicity and collusion in this particular institutional abuse. And it must account for each and every woman who entered these institutions having been referred there by the courts. – Yours, etc,
JAMES M SMITH,
Associate Professor English
Department and Irish Studies Program,
Boston College,
Massachusetts,
US.
Palestinian access to water
Madam, – The Israeli ambassador (November 4th) claims that the Palestinians refused a generous Israeli offer at Camp David and Taba.
The ambassador should have told your readers the parts of the Occupied Palestinian territories that were to be retained by Israel in this generous offer. These were: the Jordan Valley, 25 per cent of the West Bank, East Jerusalem, the Dead Sea, the Latrun salient and the No Man’s Land. All together, these make nearly 50 per cent of the Occupied Palestinian territories.
In his book, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, former US president, Jimmy Carter stated: “It was later claimed that the Palestinians rejected a generous offer. The fact is no such offer was ever made” (page 152).
President Carter also quoted Ehud Barak, the Israeli prime minister at the time, as saying: “The only thing that took place at Taba was non-binding contacts between senior Israelis and senior Palestinians” (page 152).
The ambassador quotes Prime Minister Netanyahu offering the Palestinians “its own flag, its own national anthem, its own government” in a speech on June 14th this year. The ambassador didn’t mention that in that speech Mr Netanyahu didn’t say anything about the boundaries he had in mind for a Palestinian state. It was as if he were offering the Palestinians a state on the moon.
In the same speech, Mr Netanyahu laid down pre-conditions set by for a Palestinian state, which deprived it of any kind of sovereignty, making it no more than a Mickey Mouse state, certainly not “an independent, viable, sovereign Palestinian state”, as required by the Road Map.
I for one believe that the true vision of Mr Netanyahu was published on January 17th, 2002 by Associated Press writer, Jack Katzenell, who wrote: “Former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said . . . that a Palestinian state must never be established and that Yasser Arafat must be overthrown”.
Finally, the evacuation of Gaza in 2005 speaks for itself: Israel redeployed its occupying forces unilaterally, moving out of the room, but surrounding the house.
It is becoming obvious to everyone, except the Israelis, that they are playing in “extra time” and that, since they are unwilling to allow the creation of an independent, viable, sovereign Palestinian state, the only option left will be a single bi-national state.
In the 21st century, Israel to be a democratic state, cannot rule over all the people between the Jordan and the Sea, as it has done since 1967. There will have to be “one man one vote” for everyone currently subject to Israeli rule – and a bi-national state. – Yours, etc,
Ambassador HIKMAT AJJURI,
General Delegation of Palestine,
Mount Merrion Avenue,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.
Well I must be off
best wishes John